After my last post, I shared the link to this blog with my family and friends. Jazak Allah khair to all you wonderful people for your duas, love, and encouragement. May Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala guide us and our children in our missions, passions and quests.
Please do share the blog with others who might benefit, especially Muslim mommys with young kids. And do share your own experiences of teaching your kids. I would love to hear them. We can all benefit from learning through different experiences.
Though the next class is still three days away, I wanted to write a short post about how to introduce Allah to the kids. By introducing, I don't mean the first time you talk to them about Allah. I mean giving them a fair understanding of who Allah is. Knowing and familiarizing ourselves with Allah, I believe, is a life long process. With every act of worship, we grow closer to our Lord and love Him even more. Just dwelling on the meaning of a single attribute/name of Allah can take us closer to Him.
Your kids will, in shaa Allah, experience this beautiful process in their own time. But the foundation for this relationship needs to be built up carefully. I have heard people teaching their kids to 'fear' Allah. Fear of Allah has been given such an important platform in teaching Islam that, unfortunately, love for Allah becomes secondary. Our kids need to know that Allah loves them more than their father and mother can ever love them. They need to know that, no matter what Allah, is always going to be there for them. They need to learn to love and trust Allah completely. Talk about fearing Allah can come much much later when the child is already close to Allah and will inherently not wish to do anything that would displease his/her Lord.
In my class we spoke about a mother's love. I told them that even though you might be naughty sometimes, your mother never stops loving you. She might get angry with you occasionally but only because she wants what best for you. So it is important to make your mother happy by showing her how much you love her back. Be kind to her, talk sweetly to her, be good, help her, etc.
I let this soak in for a while and then went on to speak about Allah's love for us. In shaa Allah, every class I hope to reinforce this fact and talk about at least one attribute of Allah. The last class we went over Tasmiya again (Bismillah hir Rahman nir Raheem) and we spoke about the words Ar-Rahman (The Most Giving) and Ar-Raheem (The Most Forgiving). I know most translations will prefer the words Beneficent and Merciful, however those are pretty heavy words for little kids; Giving and Forgiving are easy to explain and pretty much mean the same thing.
Being as young as they are, they need practical examples to help them understand concepts and new words so I give them plenty of that. Like talking about Mom forgiving you after you've done something bad. Also I asked each of them if they wanted to say sorry to Allah for something naughty they had done. They all giggled, not wanting to own up to anything naughty. But I coaxed further, saying we all sometimes do things we aren't supposed to, like getting angry with someone, or being rude, or not helping someone. But if we realise what we did was wrong, we should say sorry to Allah and promise not to do that wrong thing again. That was called asking for forgiveness. And even if you had done something really naughty, Allah would in shaa Allah forgive you. Because Allah is Ar-Raheem, The Most Forgiving. Even more forgiving that your Mom.
The kids seemed to understand now what Ar-Raheem meant. One boy said he doesn't pray. One girl said she had been rude to her mother. One said she fights with her little sister. So I repeated what I said about asking for forgiveness and how pleased Allah would be with us for being sorry for what we did. Because saying sorry makes us better people.
Do comment and let me know your experiences on talking to kids about Allah.
Please do share the blog with others who might benefit, especially Muslim mommys with young kids. And do share your own experiences of teaching your kids. I would love to hear them. We can all benefit from learning through different experiences.
Though the next class is still three days away, I wanted to write a short post about how to introduce Allah to the kids. By introducing, I don't mean the first time you talk to them about Allah. I mean giving them a fair understanding of who Allah is. Knowing and familiarizing ourselves with Allah, I believe, is a life long process. With every act of worship, we grow closer to our Lord and love Him even more. Just dwelling on the meaning of a single attribute/name of Allah can take us closer to Him.
Your kids will, in shaa Allah, experience this beautiful process in their own time. But the foundation for this relationship needs to be built up carefully. I have heard people teaching their kids to 'fear' Allah. Fear of Allah has been given such an important platform in teaching Islam that, unfortunately, love for Allah becomes secondary. Our kids need to know that Allah loves them more than their father and mother can ever love them. They need to know that, no matter what Allah, is always going to be there for them. They need to learn to love and trust Allah completely. Talk about fearing Allah can come much much later when the child is already close to Allah and will inherently not wish to do anything that would displease his/her Lord.
In my class we spoke about a mother's love. I told them that even though you might be naughty sometimes, your mother never stops loving you. She might get angry with you occasionally but only because she wants what best for you. So it is important to make your mother happy by showing her how much you love her back. Be kind to her, talk sweetly to her, be good, help her, etc.
I let this soak in for a while and then went on to speak about Allah's love for us. In shaa Allah, every class I hope to reinforce this fact and talk about at least one attribute of Allah. The last class we went over Tasmiya again (Bismillah hir Rahman nir Raheem) and we spoke about the words Ar-Rahman (The Most Giving) and Ar-Raheem (The Most Forgiving). I know most translations will prefer the words Beneficent and Merciful, however those are pretty heavy words for little kids; Giving and Forgiving are easy to explain and pretty much mean the same thing.
Being as young as they are, they need practical examples to help them understand concepts and new words so I give them plenty of that. Like talking about Mom forgiving you after you've done something bad. Also I asked each of them if they wanted to say sorry to Allah for something naughty they had done. They all giggled, not wanting to own up to anything naughty. But I coaxed further, saying we all sometimes do things we aren't supposed to, like getting angry with someone, or being rude, or not helping someone. But if we realise what we did was wrong, we should say sorry to Allah and promise not to do that wrong thing again. That was called asking for forgiveness. And even if you had done something really naughty, Allah would in shaa Allah forgive you. Because Allah is Ar-Raheem, The Most Forgiving. Even more forgiving that your Mom.
The kids seemed to understand now what Ar-Raheem meant. One boy said he doesn't pray. One girl said she had been rude to her mother. One said she fights with her little sister. So I repeated what I said about asking for forgiveness and how pleased Allah would be with us for being sorry for what we did. Because saying sorry makes us better people.
Do comment and let me know your experiences on talking to kids about Allah.
this z really very nice > it will definitely make them better people & obviously that z what being better muslims mean. owning up your mistakes z the first step towards being truthful.
ReplyDeleteJazak Allah khair! Very true! Honesty and humility are important aspects of being a Muslim. May Allah guide us and our children, in shaa Allah!
ReplyDelete